Bedfordshires latest mega

Two-barred Crossbill, The Lodge, 28th March 2010. A typical Bedfordshire record. When everywhere else gets birds in an influx, Beds misses out. When there hasn't been a bird around for months, Beds turns one up!

Blimey!

Two-barred Crossbill, The Lodge, 27th March 2010.

Wishful thinking

A bit dull and drizzley, but warm this morning.  With a light south-easterly I was perhaps a little hopeful something interesting would fly through Broom this morning.  It wasn't bad, but nothing unexpected between 07:00-08:15

Redshank - 8
Snipe - 2
Oyc - 1
Ringed Plover - 1
Golden Plover - c.800 flying over
Sand Martin - 8
Swallow - 1
Whooper Swan - 1
Chiffchaff - 1
Shoveler - 3
Shelduck - 1

A walk round the Lodge at lunchtime revealed a light northerly passage of Meadow Pipits on a fairly broad front.  Passerine passage in Spring is a hard thing to work out when the peaks occur.  You just don't see the spectacular movements of pipits, finches, and thrushes like you do in Autumn.  However I have just noticed that Dungeness had a massive movement of 9000 Chaffinches on 21st!  That's more than I see from the Pinnacle all Autumn...

Sprung?

Spring is on its way.  I've seen my first White Wags and Wheatears locally, and warblers and hirundines are trickling in too.  It won't be long before waders, terns, and gulls are (hopefully) winging their way to Broom again.

This means I'll be updating the blog more regularly than of late.  That is, if there's something to blog about...

A great tit

Not your average Blue Tit, this is an Ultramarine Tit! Also know as African Blue Tit. Either way, its FAR cooler than a normal Blue Tit.